The research into new forms of CRISPR seems never-ending. It is an ongoing goal of scientists around the world to expand scientific knowledge on different kinds of CRISPR and also creating newfound capabilities for the existing varieties. Since the greater the flexibility of the tools available to science, the more treatments and medicines that can […]
When researching and developing vaccines and treatments for disease outbreaks, one of the most difficult aspects is often lacking active samples of the virus for testing. If an outbreak of a new strain of Ebola occurs somewhere in the world, it can be very difficult to safely get a sample of the virus back to […]
Viruses are not always loose, free-floating pieces of encapsulated DNA in the environment, unlike most kinds of bacteria. Instead, many of them spend their life cycle, as much as a virus can be said to have one, inside other organisms like the aforementioned bacteria or higher order creatures. And for the viruses in the family […]
Degenerative diseases are never a fun topic to talk about. They involve the gradual wasting away of the body or mind, the losing of oneself over time to decay. History has long focused on such disorders and the horrors both for the person and those around them. It is no surprise then, that with the […]
The topic has been raised time and again over the years, especially with the advent of medical biotechnology and the capability to reconstruct genomes wholecloth. Even if science has the capability to make something, should it? Smallpox In The Room In this case and in several prior instances, the discussion has been about the reconstruction […]
The modern world has a multitude of issues it is facing, most of which filter through and incorporate agriculture in some fashion. Whether speaking of climate change, overpopulation, deforestation, or any number of other topics, the food supply and how we produce it is involved. For a significant chunk of the countries in the world, […]
There are far more dangerous and lethal diseases out there than one usually thinks about. Gruesome conditions brought on by bacteria, viruses, and, often the most directly disgusting of all, parasitic organisms. Neglected Tropical Diseases: Schistosomiasis Schistosomiasis is one of these and is listed as a neglected tropical disease (NTD), a category of diseases that […]
Biofilms are an ingenious evolutionary creation, but one that gives us humans a lot of trouble in fighting bacteria. Film Development Originally, there was no real need for bacteria to clump together in most situations, due to their free-floating water environment. But land surfaces (and debris in the waters) enabled them to form extracellular matrixes […]
Stem cells were often thought of as the holy grail of biological discovery after they were uncovered by Ernest McCulloch and James Till in 1963. A method to produce cells that can form into any part of the body, potentially providing new organs and prevent horrible disorders like leukemia. Of course, things didn’t really turn […]
Synthetic biology is complicated. When you’re building biological systems from the ground up, how could it not be? But the results are almost always something amazing, a real revolutionary accomplishment that wouldn’t be possible with any other field of science. The only other field that comes close is nanotechnology and mechanical systems are still somewhat […]
